Brain Breaks Part 25: STOMP, CLAP, SNAP!

What!? Maestra Loca?! You still blog!?

I know… I suck this year… oh well! Something is better than nothing I suppose!

Wanted to share a Brain Break with you that I’ve really been loving this year! The Middle School Music teacher at my school, Ashley Johnson, shared it with me. It is essentially body percussion… The first time I ever tried it with kids I LITERALLY cried…. I didn’t record it the first day, because I wanted to DO it WITH them… (an important part of ANY brain break in my opinion… they’re such community builders it is so important you are doing it WITH students whenever possible)

I introduced it to 7th grade first. We all sat, stomped, snapped, beat our chests, and clapped our hands together in unison… we felt like a family, like a community. It was so special. During such a tumultuous year where I haven’t even been able to DO most of my Brain Breaks because of traveling to 9 different classrooms full of DREADED DESKS, I was SOOO happy to feel like I finally had a Brain Break that united us as a community….

This is the video I used first:

There are COUNTLESS videos on YouTube of these, you just have to search! Type in “Percusión Corporal” and you’ll see what I mean. Another HUGE benefit is that your music teacher will LOVE you because you’re reinforcing reading MUSIC in your language classroom!

I’ve done this Brain Break both in person, virtually on Zoom, and even embedded videos like this one, into Google Forms for asynchronous work! (LOVE this one! I wanna be like you in Spanish?!?! WHAT!?!?!?):

Obviously the songs are long, so you don’t have to do the WHOLE song if you don’t want to. Typically my Brain Breaks are super short and sweet, but I’ve learned that kids get SUPER annoyed with me if I don’t let them do the whole song when we do Stomp, Clap, Snap Brain Breaks!

Questions are rolling in from French teachers so here is a QUICK edit! Look what I found when I typed in Percussion Corporelle in French in Youtube:

and THIS ONE!!! (just for fun!!!!!)

There are seriously SOOO many out there y’all…….

Big thanks to, Mama Wall (my Mother By Love) for watching Memphis today so I could present for Comprehended! (I know! This year they’re doing LIVE webinars and workshops on the weekends coupled with the recorded content! So great!) and a BIGGER thanks to LFLTA for canceling our board meeting so I had time to FINALLY write a blog… Who knows, maybe I will go crazy and write another!

Love y’all!!! Can’t wait to hear how this goes over with your kids… I think they’ll really enjoy!

Until next time,

Stay happy, stay safe, stay sane,

Love,

La Maestra Loca

We were off for Mardi Gras all week this week and I didn’t work much AT ALL….. it was SOOOO needed…. I hope you’re doing well, staying safe, and staying warm!